The US consulate building in North Sydney was vandalised overnight, prompting a police investigation, Australian media reported.
CCTV footage obtained by police shows a hooded figure with his face covered smashing nine glass windows of the consular section with a hammer at around 3 a.m. on Monday.
Two red triangles were also spray-painted on the consulate’s coat of arms on the front door.
Police are classifying the incident as malicious damage and are still working to determine the motive behind the incident, but it is suspected to be politically motivated.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident, calling for “respectful political debate and discourse.” He said:
People are traumatised by what is going on in the Middle East, particularly those with relatives in either Israel or in the Palestinian occupied territories,” Albanese said at a press conference. Measures such as painting the US Consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is, of course, a crime to damage property.
Forensics officers are collecting evidence, including fingerprints, and taking photographs of damage to the consulate building on Miller Street.
The consulate was previously vandalised with the words “Free Gaza” in April, while the US consulate in Melbourne was spray-painted in a similar incident last month. Australia is a close ally of Israel, but has become increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza in recent months. In April, Albanese condemned Israel’s explanation for the killing of Australian woman Zomi Frankcom and six other aid workers in an air strike in central Gaza as “not good enough”.
